MS-13 has grown from its start as a local gang in Los Angeles to a well-organized gang syndicate with a presence in 33 states and membership of more than 10,000 in the United States. In Central America, there are more than 40,000 estimated members of the gang.

Its name comes from La Mara, a street in San Salvador and the Salvatrucha guerillas that fought in El Salvador’s civil war. Originally, the gang formed to protect Salvadorans from abuse from other local gangs. However, the gang has come a long way from these beginnings.

A border mafia
According to a report by the Maldon Institute, MS-13 “appears to be in control of much of the Mexican border and, in addition to its smuggling and contraband rackets, the gang collects money from illegal immigrants that it helps [move] across the border into the United States.” It is this trafficking in drugs and human smuggling that has brought MS-13 into direct conflict with Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol. “The gang has been confirmed to be involved in smuggling drugs and illegal aliens into the United States, primarily across the U.S. southern border,” said a member of the CBP Office of Border Patrol Field Intelligence Center. “Reporting suggests that MS-13 is aligned with drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and Colombia, moving drugs through Central America,” he added.

It is a natural conflict. MS-13 wants unfettered access to smuggling corridors so they can increase their trade, and CBP Border Patrol agents are tightening or even shutting off access to these corridors. That in turn increases competition between rival criminal organizations that must vie for areas where they can ply their trade. The result of this struggle for domination of the drug and smuggling trade is increased violence even between rival criminal organizations. Nevertheless, even rival gangs see the Border Patrol as a common enemy. Recent reports suggest that MS-13 has accepted contracts to assassinate Border Patrol agents in an effort to intimidate and frighten agents away from the border.

MS-13 culture
A whole culture has developed around the MS-13. Gang members favor wearing blue and white, the colors of the national flag of El Salvador. In addition, many gang members have heavy tattoos, even on their faces. The tattoos are a visual history of a member’s gang career. A member has to have committed some crime or have done some deed in order to get the letters of his clique tattooed on.

Another characteristic of MS-13 is its appetite for brutality. In El Salvador, machetes are commonly used to cut down crops. However, in the United States, gang members have found new uses for the implement, making it their signature weapon. Using a machete also has strategic advantages: It can be deadly but it is silent. Gang members can get away before a crime is detected.

Yet, MS-13 has two deadly and dangerous aspects to its culture that make it an even bigger threat—flexibility and mobility. Like a mutating virus, MS-13 adapts to survive and thrive in a changing environment. They will traffic in drugs, prostitution, or guns; engage in extortion, kidnapping, or murder for hire. As one law enforcement official said, “MS-13 will do any crime at any time.”

In addition, the gang is growing in sophistication, modifying how they operate depending on enforcement efforts. Gang members will wear different colors if they feel the traditional blue and white is recognizable. In addition, they will wear the numbers 67 or 76 because it equals 13. Tattoos may be worn discreetly or not at all. And the composition of the gang is changing, with non-Latino members accepted into its ranks. But the real nightmare is that when the heat gets turned on in one area: MS-13 moves elsewhere and increasingly into small or mid-sized communities in middle America.

Fighting back
The Border Patrol considers the MS-13 to be a trans-national threat. Since October 2004 the CBP Border Patrol has had a standing requirement to collect intelligence information on the gang. It was as a result of intelligence information that Eber Anibal River-Paz , a Honduran national leader of MS-13, was identified. River-Paz who had escaped from prison in Honduras, was wanted in connection with the December 2004 Honduran bus massacre where 28 men, women and children were killed. Increased intelligence and greater access to and integration of law enforcement systems has facilitated identification of those apprehended.

MS-13 in the news Last Fiscal Year CBP Border Patrol apprehended 294 gang members nationally, of these 208 belonged to Mara Salvatrucha or MS13. Statistics reflect the increase in gang movement into the United States. CBP Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector has the greatest volume of MS-13 apprehensions nationally and reflects the growing threat —two apprehensions in FY 2004, 62 the following year and 75 in FY 2006. Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 was the subject of a recent bilateral discussion between President Bush and El Salvador’s President Antonio Saca. Both leaders expressed concern about the growing transnational threat posed by the gang and discussed greater cooperative efforts in dealing with this problem. President Bush characterized the gangs as a threat, not only to both countries, but to the region more widely. Professor Susan Ritter, Chair of the University of Texas’ Criminology Department, recently conducted a study on Ms-13. Some of the findings of the study were that MS-13 is now in all 50 states. According to Ritter’s study, gang members are foregoing their signature tattooing in an effort to blend into the population. Additionally, Ritter compared the development of MS-13 to that of the American Mafia of the early 1900 indicating that the gang is expanding in to white collar crime. Two MS-13 Members are currently on trial using the federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. The Act was designed to be used against the mafia, but prosecutors are attempting to use it again to prosecute MS-13 members. Federal officials are hopeful that the current trial may yield details about how MS-13 is organized and operates.

Border gang violence—close to home When I think of gangs I usually see a scene from West Side Story in my head. I picture young feral, adult males roaming alleys in the shadow of urban tenements, ducking into doorways to avoid the police. I envision groups gathered under streetlights in some big city ghetto, plotting their next move. So, I was surprised one night when I went out the back door of my home in a middle class suburban neighborhood to discover a group of boys sitting in my backyard. The seven or eight adolescents had pulled out my lawn chairs and were drinking beer, smoking marijuana, laughing and quietly talking in the privacy of my back yard. Some sported tattoos on their faces and arms but most just looked like fresh-faced teenagers. I recognized one of them, Joaquin, a neighborhood skateboarder. I asked what they were doing. In reply, a shrug, a smile and “just chillin.” It was strange, but I remember feeling spooked—afraid of a group of 13- and 14-year- old boys. So with a joking tone I told them to leave. “Guys, I can’t be the scandal of the neighborhood by hosting drinking and pot parties for underage kids,” I said. The boys put my chairs away, cleaned up after themselves, and left. I thought that was the end of it. But the next day two storm doors on the back of house were vandalized, and the lock on my fence gate was destroyed. And the following day I noticed a carving on my fence post—a hand with three fingers pointing down—the sign for MS-13. And the day after that my neighbor’s garage doors were defaced and graffitied with gang insignia. Two days later, someone shot a BB through one of my windows. Though neighbors complained, gangs had taken over the alley. One afternoon I saw Joaquin in the park and he nodded “hello.” I went over to speak and we started talking. “Why did you want to join a gang,” I asked. “ I didn’t, but I got “jumped in.” Seeing I was puzzled, he explained, “It means they beat the hell out of me. I survived. So now I’m in.” Horrified, I said “but you’re just a kid.” “I’m actually old. They want young blood to do the bad crime. That way if you get caught, you get ‘juvie’, and there’s no record.” And with a shrug he was off. I thought maybe it was just talk. Soon after I saw a report where a gang member pleaded guilty to a machete slaying of an 82-year-old man, and later where a 17-year-old pregnant girl who was nearly beheaded after the gang learned she was helping police in a murder investigation. With a chilling realization, I thought, maybe that is why they are called “neighborhood gangs.” I just didn’t think it would be my neighborhood.